District launches neighborhood School Connect pilots to boost family engagement

Amadou Hamadi, executive director of student engagement, presented School Connect to the Manchester Board of School Committee on Oct. 14, describing a ward-based pilot designed to bring district leadership, school principals and resources into community locations so families can receive information, ask questions and guide next steps.

Hamadi said the model is not a single event but a systematic approach to building trust and two-way communication. He described a pilot that will start with two wards (Ward 1 planned for Oct. 30 and Ward 5 in November) and said each meeting would include a brief celebratory performance, district updates, family dialogue with interpretation services, a student showcase and a resource fair. Modality is intended to be flexible: meetings could be bimonthly, hosted at libraries or trusted neighborhood sites, and tailored to local needs (for example, transportation, construction updates, college readiness or literacy depending on the ward).

Outreach will include flyers, school- and principal-level communications, bilingual liaisons and digital channels such as district talking points and social-media short videos. Hamadi said the pilot will use short surveys and informal debriefs after each session to gather feedback and iterate before districtwide expansion.

Board members asked operational questions about which principals or district staff would attend. Hamadi clarified that invitations will target families who live in a ward even when their children attend schools that are located in other wards — the goal is to make meetings accessible to families where they live and to bring the principals of the schools those families’ children attend so parents can connect directly with school leaders.

Student member Geary said he had seen Empower signage but not a robust rollout at West High School and encouraged more direct student involvement; staff said student teams at West had only just begun and pledged follow-up to pull together student leadership.

Why it matters: School Connect is positioned as a sustained, neighborhood-level engagement strategy intended to reduce language, transportation and informational barriers and to create an on‑ramp for families who are not reached through conventional district communications. The pilot’s outcomes — participation rates, satisfaction feedback and the district’s ability to translate meetings into actionable follow-ups — will determine whether the model scales.

Next steps: pilot sessions in Ward 1 (Oct. 30) and Ward 5 (mid-November), data collection after each session, a decision point in December about expansion, and continued coordination with bilingual liaisons, principals and board members for outreach and location confirmation.